The front page of the Red Star had one of those rare featured self-defense stories. The story was likely featured only because the would-be victims were able to defend themselves without the use of a firearm… after 15 minutes of being terrorized by a crack addict while the police were nowhere in sight:
Two young couples were watching TV Saturday afternoon at the Bloomington house they share when they heard a dog bark, and then a woman scream.
Suddenly, a desperate-looking stranger burst into their house.
The man, later identified by police as a suspected bank robber and fugitive on a crack binge, bounded up the stairs into their living room. Brandishing a screwdriver and claiming he had a gun, he ordered them onto the living room floor.
“Everything happened so fast,” one of the victims said later.
Then the intruder demanded a car. For 15 long minutes, the victims tried to appease him.
The families could have saved themselves 15 agonizing minutes, minutes where they were at the mercy of their assailant. How? Easy, they could have had a gun and shot the bastard as he burst into their home. Instead the two families remained entirely defenseless while the police didn’t respond:
In the upstairs living room, the three others were calling police.
When you have a crack addict taking a hostage waiting for the police is not a viable option if you want to ensure your continued existence. In this case the crack addiction slipped up and gave his would be hostage a window to find a weapon and defend himself but that isn’t always the case. While it’s good that nobody important was hurt (sorry but a piece of shit who breaks into somebody’s home ceases to be important in my book) the situation would have been much quicker resolved had one of the family members been able to shoot the bastard. Remember when you call the police it will take them minutes to arrive if they decide to come at all.